To the Castle (OPEN)

[Kitten4u]

((Once again, I really don't recommend interacting with Andrea unless you're human. You also shouldn't post in this thread if you have already made posts in the castle as that would just be silly.))

Well, it was finally time to see if anyone actually decided to listen to her. She told everyone that would listen that they should meet her at the edge of the forest of magic now and she told them to tell everyone they could the same thing. There didn't appear to be anyone here yet, but it was still faily early. Hopefully they would actually listen this time. Even when some people seemed to be listening to what she was saying it seemed to be going through one ear and out the other and she had to repeat herself. Andrea hating repeaing herself and the last thing she needed to be right now was angry at the people she was supposed to be working with.

Today she could clearly see the castle looming in the distence. She still didn't understand how she could have missed something like that when she first discovered it, but that was hardly important right now. Of course, she wasn't aware that the castle was now visible. Andrea had the ability to see through illusions, she saw exactly what was really there. That meant that she could not tell if there was an illusion there or not unless someone told her there was. This ability may have allowed her to discover the castle in the first place, but she was probably going to look like a complete moron once her help arrived.

Andrea leaned against one of the nearby trees and waited for other people to arrive. Of course they had to be human. Any youkai that came near her would be promptly stabbed. Sure, the end of the world may be an issue right now but asking her to work with youkai was just unreasonable in her opinion.

[Genshuku]

She certainly didn't know that the castle was visible was again, nor did she know someone she invited was already inside. And she certainly didn't know that there was already 2 youkai inside the castle, trying to 'quote on quote' "help out". But of course, this was so.

The castle loomed in the distance, but the weirdest thing: The door was wide open, and there was no door guard in sight. Certainly, this was different.

Some grunts already started to leave to another room when they saw Andrea in the distance, as they remembered Andrea as an ally of Cross, who blew up the Heavy Lobster without warning, and she managed to beat up Akkei...though she was tired, it was still a feat. And actually trying to kill her completely scared them to near death. Perhaps she would label them all as demons? The thought has scared most of them into taking the path to the 'Shop' room, where they ended up making their way through without being really noticed by the other 2 youkai, surprisingly.

All of the doors hadn't changed their labels, and the messages remained the same*.

*(Refer to other threads for all these messages, dood. Gen's somewhat tired of writing the same thing over and over, dood.)

[Kitten4u]

This rumor that's been floating around Gensokyo reeked of a new incedent, and the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion Remilia Scarlet believed that something should be done about this. If the rumor was true then there would be a mystrious, invisible castle in the middle of the Forest of Magic, and inside of that castle there would be some god that wanted to destroy the world. The sad part was that actually made about as much sense as anything that happened in Gensokyo. And since it was actually probable Remilia obviously couldn't risk something like that happening, so she sent her chief maid Sakuya Izayoi to investigate this issue.

Sakuya immediately knew that at least part of that rumor was not true since she could see the castle. But there was something else interesting besides the castle; there was another person leaning on a tree. Did she come here to stop this god too? Well, it didn't really matter since Sakuya prefered to work alone, and she didn't find the task of fighting a god nearly as intimidating as Andrea did. After all, if Reimu and Marisa could not one, but two gods then why couldn't she take down one on her own? She was at least as strong as them after all.

Unfortunately for Sakuya, Andrea was stubborn, wanted to take down that god and wanted help doing just that. Sakuya did look human, probably because she WAS human, so she was an acceptable person to work with for the time being. Andrea was getting impatcient, though for once she actually had a good reason to be impatcient. It was several hours after the time she told people to meet her, and if Sakuya had shown up even a few moments later she probably would have just went into the castle on her own. Needless to say she was very happy that someone finally showed up.

"Good afternoon," Andrea stood up and walked over to Sakuya. "Are you here to investigate the castle too? It's invisible right now, but I can see through what's making it invisible."

Sakuya raised her eyebrows and wondered if she should just stick a knife in this girl's head while she had the chance. What the heck did she mean? It was invisible but she could see it? Then Sakuya must have this ability too because the castle was clearly visable. She really didn't want to work with this person either, but she was feeling nice so she just continued walking instead of tossing a knife into her skull.

Andrea stood there for a moment before she ran after Sakuya, "W-wait where are you going?! The castle is invisible. You won't be able to find it without me."

Sakuya stopped walking and turned around. What the heck was wrong with that girl anyway? "...I can see the castle. It's very hard to miss," she pointed at it. "It's right there," she turned around and continued to walk towards the castle.

Andrea couldn't tell when the castle was visible and when the castle was invisible. This was very embarassing, but she couldn't let such a minor thing interfere with her mission. Gensokyo could be destroyed if she did nothing, and she couldn't let that happen. But, even with her new found power she didn't think she could take down that god on her own, or rather she wasn't willing to risk such a thing. Andrea was one of the few people she knew that could be totally cocky and arrogant but still be humble and in touch with how strong she really was at the same time. It just didn't seem like a single mortal versus a god would end well. So, Andrea followed Sakuya anyway much to her displeasure.

"Stop following me," Sakuya said cooly not even bothering to look back.

"We have a better chance of winning if we fight together."

"I don't need your help."

"I understand, but I need yours," Sakuya stopped walking. "This isn't about proving how strong I am, this isn't about defeating the god, this is about saving Gensokyo. I will help you whether you need me or not. I will help you whether you want me to or not. I have a mission and I refuse to fail."

Sakuya couldn't think of anything to respond to that. She really didn't want this girl to follow her, but she did make an excellent point. But beating the god was Sakuya's mission. Remilia did not ask her to save Gensokyo, she asked her to defeat the god and she fully intended to follow that order to the letter. Who knows, maybe this girl could just take out the small fry or any other person that wasn't the mastermind. But she refused to say any of this out loud and simply continued to walk to the castle.

Andrea hated being ignored like that, but now was not the time to let such silly things prevent her from completing her mission. "I'm Andrea Janan. It's nice to meet you _{I guess}," she sighed.

"Sakuya Izayoi."

---

"Okay, last time I was here there was someone guarding the...door..."

Andrea's jaw nearly dropped when she saw that the door was already open. She didn't know if she should be shocked or not though. After all that guard was asleep when Andrea first saw her. Sakuya was getting the impression that this gaurd was about as competent as the one that guarded Remilia's mansion. Since Andrea thought she was dangerous enough to warn her about she was obviously a decent fighter at the very least, well either that or Andrea was a terrible fighter but she didn't want to think about that, but after the initial shock of seeing the door open she didn't seem all that shocked which meant that the guard probably did its job about as well.

But whatever, if there was no guard they would simply waltz in. Andrea thought using the front door might be a little too obvious, but she didn't see a better place to enter, so she just followed Sakuya though the front door. Once they entered they were greeted by a magical, glowing message on the door.

'Welcome. There is not much to say, but here is the rundown: The grunts in here will not try to kill you in any way. If you ignore this, then you will certainly pay for it later. There are locked doors, and the keys are hidden inside this castle. Those that hold them will be blatantly obvious, and you may beat up the one holding them (but again, refrain from killing them). I await the heroes of the land to make their progress through here. Good luck.

-- Kaosu'

Both of them just stood there for a bit and store at the message. They weren't really sure what to make of it. Geez, this god was weird. After a few seconds Sakuya rubbed her chin and smirked. Don't attack the small fry huh? She knew how these incedents worked. All she had to do was beat up random people and the mastermind would eventually show itself.

Andrea on the other hand simply looked at the grunts. They looked harmless enough, and it seemed like Kaosu was telling the truth. They were just minding their own business. Some of them looked at the two girls, but they didn't look threatening at all. So maybe there really wasn't any reason to attack th--was that a tail? Yes, yes it was and it seemed like a few of the other grunts had tails and other unnatural features. In other words they were youkai and there was no way that Andrea could let them live. She was a youkai exterminator that took her job very seriously. The second she went into "extermination mode" she drew her sword and took a few steps forward.

Sakuya smiled and did the same. "So you think we should ignore the note too?"

Andrea didn't even hear Sakuya say that since she was in extermination mode now. All she could see were the youkai and herself, nothing else mattered right now. She immediately dashed towards the nearest youkai and tried to stab it in the back. She wasn't nearly as fast as the tengu, but she wasn't slow by any stretch of the imagination. Her sword was also coated with silver, which made it a little awkward to handle sometimes, but it also made it more effective against youkai.

Sakuya just laughed quietly to herself. She would just take that backstab attempt as a "yes we're ignoring the sign." It was too early to use spell cards right now, and since these people were just grunts she probably didn't need to use them anyway. She threw dozens of knives at what appeared to be at once to anyone that didn't have time manipulation abilities like her. She threw them with deadly accuracy, and they would even bounce off of the walls, floors and ceiling. She didn't even care for Andrea's safety since she still wanted to take this god on alone, so knives were literally flying everywhere, and once a knife stopped moving she simmply stopped time, picked it up and threw it again.

So, exactly how would they be sorry? Sakuya was very curious now.

[Genshuku]

They dropped like flies. The backstabbed grunt (who happened to be a female, though it didn't really matter) had a look of shock as she collapsed to the ground, bleeding whatever youkai bleed*. Andrea was there, and they all knew who she was. The fact that she brought her maid** (who just happened to be far better at mass-killing) made them go into a full panic, but a wordless one. They all made for the doors. There were three doors, but everyone stayed clear of the one in the middle. Most went to the 'Shop' door, for reasons the grunts knew too well. The ones closer to the 'Mess Hall' door obviously went in there. Why trek across the whole hall to get in a door when the one next to you worked fine enough.

Some straggled. Those are dead. Sakuya worked wonders.

The room got darker. Was it due to the absence of life? Was it something dark approaching? Was it simply dramatic effect? Were there even lights in here?

...Actually, yes. And they stayed lit, too. Didn't even dim. Perhaps the person was showing her/himself?

Already? Hardly.

...No, wait. There seemed to be one other individual in the room, in a suit of armor identical to Akkei's, only instead of black, it was blue. The person was about 6 feet tall, female (again....was there mostly females working here? There was some men, but still...) with a sturdy but not muscular build. And, a katana. And, a bunch of deflected knives. And unlike Akkei, a helmet. The figure spoke, in a dull, bored, and annoyed voice.

"Great. A homicidal Time and Space manipulating maid that works for a vampire and a youkai exterminator that kills them on sight. Maid of the Scarlet Devil working with a Devil Killer***. I wouldn't be surprised if after all of this was over, she would go after the master the maid holds so dear. Now if you will excuse me, I'll be watching the fight that's about to take place from a safe distance.****"

And then she was gone. Matter of fact, she was gone in thin air. Teleporting must be the new way of getting around for the higher class of workers.

So, she seemed to have a Satori, either that or their technology was really really good. Maybe it was like the one that made the room darker without dimming the lights in the room.

In any case, Andrea was going to run into some...complications. Mainly: Oh crap.

*(It's called blood, dood.)
**(Um...not really, dood.)
***(More like mortal enemies, dood.)
****(And she knows it, dood.)

[sui]

Sui strolled up the steps of the castle that seemed to be harboring a rather fierce battle. He stepped to the side of the door and peered inside to see to women causing all hell to break loose. There was an impressive fighter decimating the youkai population while the other was distorting time to keep the room alive with knives that danced upon the air like feathers. He stood there and let the marvelous sight draw him in while scoping out the hall for places to go. Sui silently slipped into the hall and focused on condensing the moisture in the air into ice crystals to aid him in what was sure to be an eventful day. As the ice formed in the shape of six-pointed stars, a knife came whizzing through the air making a hissing sound as it grazed Sui's arm to hit the wall and bounce back into the fight.

"Damnit. I was wanting to avoid bleeding today." he said in an undertone.

He froze the water in the blood to stop it bleeding and continued over to the corpse of a youkai where he maneuvered himself into a spot that had the corpse and wall protecting his sides while his Ice Stars acted as a defense against the knives that danced to death's song above him.


Sui watched from behind his shielding and noticed that the knife-thrower was not taking the safety of her companion into account as one of her knives bounced off a wall to aim straight at her.

"Here we go." Sui said as he set in to protect himself and this youkai exterminating warrior.

He weighed the knife down with ice to veer it off course and then evaporated it back into the air to use again and keep notice from shifting to his actions. The warrior remained blissfully ignorant to his aid and he was thankful for such since he did not have a desire to so mercilessly slaughter every life in this place when he was only curious.

He turned his attention to a youkai that was attempting to sneak up on this warrior and speared it with ice so that it dropped before going any farther. As Sui continued protecting this impressive warrior he noticed that the hall was starting to grow darker. Sui started to worry about what was coming next but refused to lessen his protection on the two women who appeared to be worth protecting to him.

[Kitten4u]

They were both very pleased with how quickly the room was clearing, though Sakuya was not happy that they were running away like that. How inconvinient. Andrea didn't seem to notice that some of them were trying to escape, and just kept attacking whoever happened to be closest to her. Sakuya on the other hand simply smirked. It was physically impossible to run away from her since she could just stop time. And that's exactly what she did. Sakuya looked around for a minute to try to find where the majority of them were running and it seemed like most of them were running towards the door labeled "shop." Well she obviously couldn't just let them escape (they might drop point items if she killed them!), so she calmly walked towards the entrance of the shop and threw some knives directly at the grunts that were now walking directly towards her. They would be in for a very unpleasant surprise once time started moving again.

Before she let time move again she noticed something very interesting. There were these large shards of ice coming out of one of the mooks, and judging from its frozen expression it didn't seem like that was it trying to attack either. Though, Andrea did seem to notice that it was attacking her. Geez, for someone so oblivious to everything she was extremely good at telling that someone was going to attack her. Maybe it was a sixth sense or something? Andrea noticed the shards of ice coming out of the grunt, but she honestly thought they were knives. So much for being able to notice things. If Sakuya could tell that thought that they were her weapons she would lose what little faith in humanity that she had.

Sakuya on the other hand knew they weren't her knives. Really, anyone with half a brain would realize that they weren't knives; they didn't even look like knives for crying out loud! Sakuya started to wonder if this was the reason they would be sorry. She didn't see who threw those shards, but it was entirely possible that whoever threw them was aiming for Andrea's back. Things were finally starting to get interesting. So it was time to check ou--wait, what was going on now? All of a sudden the room seemed to get really dark. Well, this certainly seemed more threatening than ice shards, perhaps this was the thing that would make them sorry instead? Well, it didn't really matter what was going to try to make them pay anymore since something was clearly happening right now.

"Ah, killing the small fry is so pointless," Sakuya grabbed a few knives and held them in front of her face. "I wish the mastermind would show up already."

Andrea on the other hand didn't even notice something was happening until she couldn't see very well anymore. She didn't stop fighting once she noticed it though. Yes, her job was that important to her. She missed the first part of what this armored figure said, so the second half didn't really make much sense, but she didn't really care. It was probably an enemy anyway, so she would be sure to deal with it later. However, whatever was making everything dark was getting really annoying. Was it some kind of magic? Well, if it was it would be really easy for her to deal with, and if it wasn't her anti-magical skills wouldn't do anything to hurt her, so she saw no reason not to. Sadly there was a reason not to and Sakuya wouldn't be pleased that her abilities would be interfered with. However, Andrea had forgotten that she was even there, so that was kind of a moot point. A black cloud erupted from her back and floated upwards. Normally she would stab or punch the air for dramatic effect, but her hands were kind of busy at the moment.

Sakuya on the other hand heard everything the armored figure said. Was this girl a youkai exterminator? Well that explained a lot. Sakuya didn't really care though as long as this girl stayed away from her mistress. Unlike Andrea she couldn't really do anything to counter this sudden darkness. So, she simply continued to throw some knives into whatever mooks were still alive and waited for the mastermind to show itself (of course, it was only the first boss, so she wasn't that worried yet).

[Genshuku]

Well, it seems one of the mooks was being brave to confront the menace. Too bad it's dead. He was one of the people on the 'Most Likely Do Die Doing The Impossible' list, anyway. He shall be missed...by his loved ones, anyway. Everyone else would just shrug, and some would pay bets.

The problem? The real enemy has gone unoticed by the new person. And, most of the mooks were about to be wiped clean. They were given about...less than a second to dodge the knives. O shi--

-----!!

And all of the knives were deflected, as the darkness gave way to light (the darkness subsided, and the lights were giving their full shine once again, seemingly brighter than before, but that's just a trick of the eye).

Wait, what? Dramatic entrance much.

It seems that either someone was uber fast, or could stop time as well. It certainly looked like the latter.* Said figure was nigh impossible to perceive at the speed it was going, and all of the mooks seemed to have vanished out of the room, and a quick slam could be heard. Everyone was out, except these three and herself.

Now the new figure was at a spot far enough that one could not simply lunge to attack, and it spoke to Sakuya:

"Why don't you then stop killing the small-fry then? If it's pointless...in any case, I'm the person that tells you two psycho-killers to get the hell out. Objections are met with my sword. Questions?"

She then turned to the new person, and spoke.

"Oh, you, person that wasn't here before. Did you perhaps read the sign on the door? It pretty much says that the people being mass-killed are actually innocent and are currently trying to defend themselves from these two. If you want to join in with them, please say so. It's easier to attack when one that I don't want to hurt isn't in the way. Otherwise, great, I'll nuke the room. Now, does anyone have any questions on getting the hell out, or do I have to actually go into detail about that?"

And if Sakuya decided to stop time and give her a misaimed lesson in pain, the fact she could move freely in any stopped time would make her think twice.** Plus, the doors locked, every door but the one to get out.

This new warrior had long, straight red hair, was about as tall as Sakuya, and held a freaking huge sword, which she had used while barely visible to swing away a bunch of knives, and had 'lugged'*** around while evacuating every single one of them through the door at once, and is using to deflect any remaining knives as she spoke, one barely being able to actually see the deflection. She wasn't dressed in armor, but she did have a large collection of badges on the dark-red kimono she was wearing. At least 10 of them.****

Geez, is that just you, or does she have a visible power aura? In the eyes of the beholders, it might as well be.

*(But it's the former. Though, the latter is effected, dood.)
**((Somewhere else, just earlier...

Security: Time stopping knife maid. Whatcha got?
Shopkeeper(F): We've got this little device. Perfect for time stoppers. Now, hurry u--...p. In a rush as always...hopefully she knows how to use it...oh wait, it's passive. Tee-hee, at least she pays. ...My shopping spree sense is tingling.))
***(Meaning not, dood. She just swung it around like a katana, or even a knife.)
****(14, dood.)

[sui]

Sui stepped out from his hiding place and faced the two women that caused such bloodshed in the room.

"Forgive me for interrupting your day ladies. Seeing how I was misled on my own account, I have a debt that I would like to pay before I allow you to continue on with your business." Sui said in a formally polite tone to the strangers.

He looked on to the stranger he now considered an oddity.

"It seems my attention skipped over your sign as it was engrossed upon the scene playing out before me. I decided to satisfy my curiosity when I saw those two women and decided to give them what aid I could. Forgive my assumptions for believing them to be of a more innocent nature than they are." He said as politely as possible. He had no interest in battling this stranger today when he was just wondering about the mysteries inside.

"Seeing how the three of you have something to settle that I am unfamiliar with, I would like to offer my services by healing those who have not been embraced by death.Understand that I will only heal those who are purely innocent and that your warriors are left to their consequences for they chose such a life. Also, if your innocents raise a hand to anyone with the intent of harm, then I will leave them with the consequences of that decision; otherwise, I will help them get out of the way of harm while you all attend to your matters. " he said in a continued polite tone.

He always tried to anticipate any outcome and so left his Ice Stars dancing around him for defense should the stranger dismiss his proposal. He was in a tight spot between her and the two women he was sure were angry as hell. Why do I seem to get in the tightest spots? Maybe I should get a better handle on my curiosity....

"As I have intruded upon your grounds and disrespected your wishes. I leave this choice to you. Understand though, by nature, I have a survival instinct and will defend myself against any who wish me harm. Seeing how I have caused unnecessary death, I give my word to keep it defensive unless offense is my only chance of survival."

With these final words Sui stood in a defensive stance, ready for anything that might come at him from either party.

[Kitten4u]

Sakuya looked very annoyed that her targets were taken away from her. The glare on her face was frightening enough to make small children have nightmares. After a few moments of glaring she smirked. It was hard to tell if the smirk was more frightening than the glare, but it was certainly more dangerous. Andrea on the other hand didn't seem all that bothered by it. She knew that after she finished off this thing-that-was-probably-a-youkai then she could go back and finish off the other ones. She was a youkai exterminator: the more dangerous ones should be taken out first anyway, and if this one could save them all without her noticing then she was probably more dangerous.

Sakuya was the first to react to the new person. She took a few steps forward and laughed a bit. "Unfortunately it seems like I have to take out one more before I can move forward." Sakuya was just as dedicated to her mission as Andrea was, they just thought about it in very different ways.

Andrea on the other hand actually had to think about her response for a second. Not because she was stupid or because she was afraid of this person, but because she always thought it was important to say the right things regardless of who she was talking to. "I don't see how anyone working for a goddess that wants to destroy Gensokyo could be considered innocent," she paused for a moment and rubbed her chin. "I did see the sign and I immediatly concluded that this goddess is completely insane. Anyone that works for her, anyone that is willing to help with this insane mission must be considered equally as dangerous. I don't know if it's possible to kill a god, but I intend to try. With that said, I understand that I am not completely innocent myself, but I assure you that I will never kill anything that I don't believe is a threat to the humans of Gensokyo." At this point it was unclear whether or not she was talking to the woman with the huge sword or the new guy. She was looking at the girl, but it also seemed unlikely that she would care about any of that stuff. "If I were really the villain here I wouldn't mind being called that. But since I cannot just abandon Gensokyo like this I will not leave."

Of course, she was focused on the current threat right now, so if she decided to attack during her little speech she would be ready for it. If the girl decided to be nice and wait for her to finish then Andrea would run as fast as she could towards her, but abruptly stop before she was in range of that sword. Hopefully she would swing it so she could jump on top of it and attack more safely from there. Sakuya on the other hand didn't fight with tricks like Andrea does. She simply threw some knives at the woman, though they wouldn't be dodged or deflected so easily. They would continue to home on her target until they got stuck in something. Obviously Sakuya hoped it would be her flesh. Both of them ignored the guy for now. Sakuya probably wouldn't go after him unless he proved to be a nuciance, and Andrea wouldn't go after him at all unless he was a youkai.

((SakuyaA's focus shot in PCB in case you're wondering.))

[Genshuku]

The Super Mook responded to this request.

"I have gotten them all out of the way, all of the ones that hadn't fled prior to my arrival are in the Shop. Unlike many cheating bastards that own shops*, they are probably tending the wounded right now with the many tools and magics they have. However, those two will attack others, which I can not allow to happen. I am not on the offensive here, I am defending the ones in need. If you wish to repay a debt, there would be only one way to do it. It seems that isn't the path that you want to take, however. Just...if you really want to help, be sure not to get in my way. Just because I am here, in the beginning, does not mean I am weak. I eat people like this for breakfast...not literally of course."

She then turned to Sakuya.

"It seems that I can not sway you, nor your cohort, no matter how I go about it. So, I have to do what I've done for hundreds of years now: Beat people up to make them listen. You brought this upon yourselves."

A battle fire seemed to spark in her eyes: She was not kidding, and combined with the literal power aura would give an 'oh shit' feeling to a normal human being. And then with the same speed she had used to rescue all of the mooks that were in harm's way before, she was behind Andrea, in the air, with the sword right above her. She then quickly paused in mid-air to say something:

"Surprise."

Before coming down with full force, full ready to slice her in two halves, and even making a large explosion when landing, causing large damage to anything caught inside (but the user, of course) The knives that were homed on her must have abruptly changed course. If they ever got to her, she would get her sword in their way. It was big enough to take most of them, but not all, so she made a few adjustments on where the sword was to make sure she got them all.

*(The kind that make you pay for things when you are trying to save the world. You know the type, dood.)

(Dood, this is an optional boss. You know how they are. You battle them, have a low chance of winning, or depending on the scenario, lose horribly...when you don't HAVE to incur a battle here, it usually borders on Impossible Boss Battle, if not simply Impossible Boss Battle.)

[sui]

Sui gazed upon the events that started to take place and made his decision to curb his curiosity this time and leave this business to those who it involved. He stepped close to the wall and made his exit as it started.Upon his exit, Sui made another decision to wait in the trees until this matter solved itself and then scout everything out to see if it was worth the satisfaction of his curiosity. With a nimble leap, Sui landed upon the branch and spent his time observing the surrounding forest, playing with the moisture in the air, and making rainbows.

[Kitten4u]

This was one of those times that Andrea was grateful that she was a youkai exterminator and that such a profession required her to be an extremely smart fighter. Sure, she could easily overpower weaker youkai (as she has already proven here), but that wouldn't work against the stronger ones that were actually worth exterminating. This was one of those cases where if she hadn't spent nearly her entire life training her body and mind then she would have been cleaved in two back there. Andrea had no idea where this 'super mook' for lack of a better term had gone.

The natural reaction would be to look around for her, and in fact that was what Andrea did before she trained herself to stop doing that (as one would imagine). Andrea may not know where she was, but she did know, or at the very least had a very good idea about, where she wasn't. If she took the time to get away from that spot then chances were that's not where she was, so Andrea simply continued to run towards where the super mook was and she wasted no time trying to figure out where she was. Where she was, was irrelevant at the moment and she figured that the mook would show herself soon enough.

Sure enough, she did. Andrea couldn't help but smirk when she heard that 'suprise' coming from behind her. She couldn't look to see if the mook was swinging the sword horizontally or vertically because stopping for even a second could mean losing a limb, so she simply decided to continue running in that one direction. Her sword was big, but she figured she could outrun it. Andrea was mostly right. She did manage to outrun the sword since she already had some momentum going, but she wasn't so lucky with the explosion, which sent her flying into the nearest wall. She wasted no time in getting up because she would rather not be stabbed today.

This was ultimately where Sakuya and Andrea's battle philosophies differed. Andrea was perfectly convinced that this youkai(?) was actually a threat, whereas Sakuya still didn't want to use spell cards against what she thought was a stage one boss. Plus, Andrea wanted to see how her new-found power worked and perhaps get a little better at controlling it before she faced the god. Andrea put her hands together and started to summon a ball of lightning. It was quite obvious that she had no idea what she was doing, but that was to be expected. This was her first time using any of the power the lightning god Cross gave her. Her whole body started twitching. She could feel the power in her, but she couldn't control it. She was quickly able to get a reasonably decent sized ball into her hand, but it was obvious that she wasn't able to hold it like that. In fact, several stray bolts started to fly off of the ball in random directions.

"Lightning sign 'Heavy Lightning!'"

Technically Andrea was aiming for the super mook, but she couldn't control the lightning to save her life. The ball she was holding ended up just exploding and bolts of lightning flew in every direction. She was able to direct some of them towards the mook, so there were more flying towards her, and she tried her best to make it so less were flying towards Sakuya, but some still flew towards her. The card was pretty powerful, so it would be extremely painful if anyone actually got hit by even one of the bolts.

Sakuya was starting to understand how Andrea felt when she was throwing all those knives with no regard for her safety. Fortunately Sakuya was very fast even without using up unneeded energy to stop time or teleporting, so she was able to put enough distance between her and Andrea so that she could actually dodge the bolts. It drove her back towards the entrance of the castle though. Those bolts were unbelievably fast, though that's what should be expected of lightning. She didn't need to be that close to the mook to fight her anyway. She simply continued to throw her homing knives. They would continue to home in on the target even after being deflected. The only way they could truely be stopped would be if they stuck to something. Sakuya was obviously hoping that it would be that woman's flesh. And as long as she kept attacking Andrea and not her she would continue to be less than serious.

[Genshuku]

(Sui is currently outside, waiting for things to end. So, we can skip him, if I read it right.)

The bolts might have been unbelievably fast, but so was this super mook, obviously. The bolts and knives were a problem though (it was like streaming only harder and with extra bolts in the background now, and there was less going towards Sakuya...

Where the bullets were less dense...

And as she realized that she wouldn't want to hurt her teammate(?), she was already directly behind her. The knives most likely turned around to get towards her, but were probably also coming towards Sakuya, which was a nice bonus (if the knives weren't danmaku knives, of course). And again, she gave fair(?) warning before attacking, but it would be the last time she would before getting completely serious.

"Boo."

And then she did a 360 horizontal slash, because 360 degrees is nice. The fact she did it in a second was quite surprising, though. If she missed, it was back to dodging knives and bolts.

[Kitten4u]

Andrea wasn't sure what annoyed her more; the fact that she couldn't control lightning yet or the fact that the super mook was actually able to dodge it all. For one she had to stay in constant motion in order to avoid Sakuya's knives, but she was actually able to read where the lightning bolts were coming from fast enough to dodge them when Andrea couldn't even read her own bolts fast enough to tell where they would hit. But she wasn't sure what else she could do. She certainly couldn't go toe-to-toe with that monster, it just moved to fast and it seemed to possess immense physical strength as well. It didn't look like it was coming towards her so she actually had a moment to think, and in that time she managed to get an idea. It was extremely risky, but if it actually worked she wouldn't be shocked if it took down the super mook in one blow, though she wouldn't be suprised if it didn't either. That thing was unbelievable.

It was lucky that Sakuya managed to back away from Andrea quickly enough or there's no way she would have been able to dodge what little lightning came in her direction. Heck, she was having a hard enough time following the super mook's position until she eventually just couldn't see it anymore. Well it didn't matter too much, her knives would just home on her anyway, well at least until she got behind her or with in a certain angle of her. When that happened all the homing knives immediately dropped to the ground, and it was at the moment that Sakuya had a vague idea of where she was at least. It wasn't until the super mook made herself known that she knew for sure though.

What a fool. Her speed, the speed of her attacks...they both meant nothing in the face of Sakuya's ability. She would merely stop time, turn around, throw several dozen knives at her and back away all in what would feel like an instant to the mook. Or at least that's what she thought. That smug smile was wiped off her face faster than the attack she was trying to do would be executed when the pointy edge of a sword nailed her in the stomach and sent her into the air. She quickly regained her composure, as she was supposed to be a perfect and elegant maid, and landed on her feet a few feet away. The mook made her bleed. It must die.

But something wasn't right. How the hell was she still able to move? Sakuya clearly stopped time; Andrea wasn't moving and neither were her lightning bolts. She turned back to her opponent and glared.

"How can you still move?"

Her voice was still calm, but it was considerably colder than it was before. She bent over and picked up a few knives off the ground, though her whole demenor clearly changed. She looked much more stiff and her eyes almost looked red (but we know peoples' eyes don't really change colors). She threw the knives she picked up and several more around her, but they stayed in place and would until she decided to stop time again. Of course, she wouldn't start time again until she wasn in a convinient place where she probably wouldn't get nailed by Andrea's lightning. Though she didn't wait too long because she might actually need Andrea's help to defeat this thing as much as she hated to admit it. Though, bombing was still completely out of the question.

She didn't back too far away from where she threw the knives when she allowed time to move again. She didn't bother waiting for the mook to answer her, nor did she actually think that she would. When time moved again Andrea's lightning bolts continued moving as quickly as ever, though it took her a second to realize that Sakuya had somehow moved a pretty considerable distence in an instant, so it took her a second to try to make it so less bolts would fire in her direction at least. Fortunately for Sakuya, she managed to position herself in a place where none of the existing lightning would hit her, so she at least had a few seconds to react before having to deal with Andrea's barrage. She was mostly successful, though one did nail her left elbow. It didn't pierce her skin, but it left a lovely burn and made her body twitch for awhile.

But the mook wouldn't just have to worry about the lightning as Sakuya's barrage started to move once time started again. Of course, she didn't stop throwing knives (though she had to do it with one hand for now) and the attack was quite intimidating and that was an understatement. The knives moved very fast (though not nearly as fast as Andrea's lightning), bounced off of the walls, the floor and the ceiling, came from all different directions and the sheer number of them was astounding. This time she actually decided to try to keep them away from Andrea so that she could continue to spew lightning bolts as well. Sakuya was clearly pissed that she might actually have to waste a spell card on a stupid stage one boss.

((Sakuya's attack is her opener from EoSD.))

[sui]

As Sui created a rather impressive rainbow, his hand reached up around his neck to a stone that hung there.

"Where is it!" Sui exclaimed. "My hystone is gone!"

He then realized that one of the flying knives must have struck the cord during his attempts to dodge them and potential trouble.

"I must get it back." He said as he leaped down from the branch and walked up to the doorway.

There on the floor and in the middle of what seemed like a war, lay his stone as it shimmerd with an ice blue tint on a draker blue. It seemed to hold a glint as well to any eye. This stone was the fruition of his training and experimentation and if any got hold of it, then his secrets would start falling into the light.

"The only way to end a battle is to have one victory or two losses." he said solemnly as he made the decision to influence an event to procure his most precious treasure.

From the doorway, He covered the many knives with a sheen of magical water that would instantly freeze what ever they cut. This freeze would be slow in progression but he hoped that enough cuts would strike so that the girls could obtain their goal. He then shifted his attention to the bolts that danced within the room and threaded magically influenced water into them so that when they struck someone, the water would conduct the electricity into their body and cause their muscles to spasm, rendering them defenseless. The plan was one of chance, but he prayed that it would work.

"The existence of that stone must not be known or I may suffer the worse for it." he whispered silently so that no ears would hear.

He stayed near the doorway, praying that this would end and return the Hystone into his possession.